Azealia Banks

The breakout Harlem rapper's Disney-meets-"Daria" aesthetic has become as recognizable as her flow thanks in part to New York art student Christina Lu, who chats with Carrie Battan about her friendship with Banks and drawing mermaids.

New York City rapper Azealia Banks can be musically erratic, but when it comes to the illustrations that accompany her tracks and mixtapes, she knows exactly what she's after. "Make it 'Daria' meets 'Sailor Moon'," Banks tells Christina Lu, a young artist currently studying at Parsons New School for Design. Those requests have yielded a series of animations that have grown into a very recognizable aesthetic, strung together by clean and colorful cartoons that morph the rapper into an assortment of Disney princess-like characters. We recently chatted with Lu about posing as a mermaid, Ringo Starr's art skills, and how she brings to life the pop culture she loved in high school. She also offered a series of in-progress GIFs to show how her covers come to be...

Pitchfork: How did you and Azealia meet?

Christina Lu: We met in high school [at Manhattan's LaGuardia Arts]. I was an art major, and we were the only students with different majors who knew each other. When I first met her, she already had a Myspace music page, so I helped her do really early Photoshop work for fun. I remember Photoshopping a "Lambchop" puppet with hearts for her. And then I did the art for "L8R". We always got along-- we'd hang out after class roaming around the city.

Pitchfork: And then you've just kept in touch since high school?

CL: No, it's actually been pretty random. Out of nowhere, I got an email from her manager asking if I could do something. I thought it was just a one-time thing for old time's sake, and then all of a sudden, "Wait, now 'Aquababe'? What is going on?" It was sweet of her to remember the little projects we used to do.

Pitchfork: Are the illustrations based on what you hear in the song, or does Azealia give you ideas?

CL: She gives me the ideas first. She knows what she wants. I usually don't hear the songs until after I've drawn the art. Sometimes I hear them and I'm like, "Wait, what? I should have listened to this first." But Azealia likes it, so it works for her.

I'll do a couple of sketches and she'll give me feedback. For "Jumanji", for example, she told me she wanted it to be "Beauty and the Beast holding hands with an elephant"-- but-- "make it Daria!" For "Nathan", she messaged me at the last minute asking me to draw a cat licking its paw. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be her cat, Lucifer. But she also gives me creative freedom sometimes-- I pitched a mermaid and a clam for "Aquababe". She also has a Disney obsession. She gets really creative and doesn't tell me why she loves certain things. We're 90s kids and I feel like she's trying to bring that back, too. I'm trying to have fun with the nostalgia.

Pitchfork: The mermaid imagery repeats itself a lot-- is it hard to keep coming up with new mermaid ideas?

CL: It's actually very hard. How does a mermaid pose? It's awkward for me. What I do is just go on PhotoBooth on my computer and pose as a mermaid myself and try to draw it. [laughs] On the Mermaid Ball poster, the little mermaid on the rocks was me posing on PhotoBooth. If I Googled it instead, it would just come out too Disney or it would look like weird anime fan art with the same pose throughout.

Pitchfork: The Disney princess-meets-Daria aesthetic is novel in terms of hip-hop art.

CL: Yeah. One thing that comes to mind is the cover for Kanye West's Graduation, drawn by Takashi Murakami. I'd like to try to keep my style, but be a little more like him. But at this point, I'm trying to keep everything cohesive, clean.

Pitchfork: I found something called Ringo Starr Art through your website. What is that?

CL: [laughs] I can't. Every time someone says that, I just have to laugh. My friend discovered that Ringo Starr does art, and I just couldn't take it. I don't think anyone knows about it. So I started the Tumblr.